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RE: Why don't we set up an official wiki for GCC documentation?


> -----Original Message-----
> From: gcc-owner On Behalf Of Joseph S. Myers
> Sent: 09 September 2004 15:04

> Maintaining the quality requirements in GCC development seems 
> (except when 
> very optimistic) an impossibly uphill task 

> It's a long time since I tried to go through every patch 
> line-by-line to 
> point out every documentation or coding standards defect; 
> many lapses in 
> documentation quality and formatting have gone into the GCC 
> manuals since 
> I last went through them systematically to clean such issues 
> up.

> I have also attempted to document development procedures, quality 
> requirements and conventions (in contribute.html, 
> codingconventions.html, 
> releasing.html, branching.html, translation.html etc.) so 
> that less needs 
> to be induced from an understanding of the 5.4 million lines 
> of source 
> tree and 7 years of mailing list messages as a whole.  
> Occasionally such 
> documentation might enhance quality, 

> quote back at those producing patches of inadequate quality.  But any 
> effect to enhance overall quality seems limited.  It seems 
> more like the 
> effect of writing such documentation is simply to render oneself 
> dispensable, as anyone can point out failures to follow what is 
> documented, while making little difference in any case to the overall 
> results.


  Joseph, I first started hacking on gcc back in '99.

  After that, I took a couple of years career break, and came back to it at
the start of this year.

  I was astonished, impressed, stunned, and what's more, very very very
pleased indeed to see the massive improvements to the quality, quantity,
consistency and completeness of the documentation, particularly the
internals.

  Please don't get discouraged; it might seem like a losing battle at times,
but you've made vast progress, even if it doesn't seem like it to you - lots
and lots of little incremental changes never seem like much, but when you
see them all at once like I did, the picture seems very different.  I'm
deeply greatful for your achievements and they've made my job a lot easier
than it was last time I was doing this.

  Thank you very much.

    cheers, 
      DaveK
-- 
Can't think of a witty .sigline today....


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